Have you been keeping up with our women in shared mobility series? Every month, we interview leaders in the space about what they think of the future of shared mobility, as well as the present set of circumstances. Each month we gain more insight about our industry, and we are especially excited about our August edition.
August edition of women in shared mobility: our interviewees
Anna Mayerthaler
How will shared mobility change in the next 5 years?
I believe in a design of the city concerning the planning of (transport)infrastructure and the variety of services concerning sharing, that make the need to possess a car unnecessary. Cities will make it easier for public and private firms to offer more sharing services. Mobility as a service will be a real contributor but always with public transit as its backbone. Street design will make shared mobility more attractive and parking private vehicles in public spaces will be more difficult.
Why is shared mobility important for our cities and communities?
Vienna is a city with a high quality of living and a high share – in terms of modal spilt (~73% ) – of the environmental friendly modes (Walking, cycling and public transport). Sharing possibilities are the missing link, which help to convince the reaming car drivers to switch. Sharing and also pooling is more efficient than driving with your own car. BikeSharing schemes offer possibilities to close gaps in the public transport networks. Sharing will be more and more seen as service of general interest, which needs to be offered also in parts of the city (for example less dense parts) where private firms won’t offer any service.
What do we have to do to convince more people to make shared mobility part of their lifestyle?
Sometimes little things could make a real difference. For example in Vienna people sometimes buy an own car, when the start of a family takes place. The reason is, that CarSharing cars don’t have child seats installed. So families need to carry their own child seats to the cars, which is inconvenient. We need sharing systems which take the different stages of life and the special needs into consideration. So the best way to convince people is to offer attractive services.
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Anna Mayerthaler is head of Science and Innovation for Wiener Stadtwerk. Connect with her here.
annie chang
How will shared mobility change in the next 5 years?
More collaborations across companies, modes, and agencies to work towards seamless, multimodal mobility. E.g. carsharing companies partnering with TNCs to provide vehicles to drivers or TNCs partnering with transit agencies for first/last mile. Greater variation of shared mobility modes and services. E.g. sharing of low-speed electric cars. Greater variation in user demographics. E.g. older population (65+), children (shared, on-demand ride to school), rural residents, and persons with disabilities.
Why is shared mobility important for our cities and communities?
Without shared mobility, we may be looking at a future with sprawled cities and roads filled with zero-occupancy vehicles. Shared mobility provides a promising opportunity for traditionally transportation-disadvantaged populations such as persons with disabilities.
What do we have to do to convince more people to make shared mobility part of their lifestyle?
Easy. Make sure that the shared mobility services are affordable, accessible, and convenient – especially when compared to SOVs.
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Annie Chang is a Project Manager for Global Ground Vehicle Standards at SAE International. She focuses on standardization and research of innovative and emerging mobility disciplines, including shared mobility, connected automated vehicles, and network-level transportation.
kathryn hing
How will shared mobility change in the next 5 years?
I really can’t predict the future, though based on the current behaviours people have begun to adopt around Europe, shared mobility seems to be becoming more accepted and and easier and sustainable way of moving within the city limits. As a designer, when we interview our users, the general trend for using our services is for sustainable and efficiency reasons. If we can keep improving on these, we will see even more people moving towards a shared mobility transport system. Moving forward, I would love to see less personal ownership of cars, resulting in an increase in shared mobility services.
Why is shared mobility important for our cities and communities?
It goes for local to global, short to long term. Looking around the city, it is helpful on a local, and short-term level for example, enabling our youth to breathe properly and improve their health, to longer term, on a national and international level including nationwide financial benefit. It is not just important for one city, or one community, but it is important for each community to implement local changes based on their own culture, which somehow increase use of shared mobility, make change on a global level; sustainably, financially, health. Germany and Berlin have done a good job of this, educating children at a young age, from which you can see a sustainable mindset later on in life.
What do we have to do to convince more people to make shared mobility part of their lifestyle?
Convince is a strong word. People shouldn’t have to be convinced to use shared mobility but decide to based on educated decisions, showing how using these services can positively impact their own lives and community. As a hyper local service, COUP attends a wide range of local events on a weekly basis; from Tech events, to food trucks, to the formulaE, purely informing people about just this. Informing a wide range of communities increases the knowledge data base, increasing the adoption rate of these services.
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Kathryn has been working in the mobility sector for the past five years. Currently a Product Designer at COUP the eScooter sharing service originally from Berlin, she is transforming urban mobility with a sustainable and electric twist. Before her work at COUP, she was part of the Autovision Business innovation team at Volkswagen designing digital innovation solutions for the mobility sector. After completing a master in strategic design at the TU Delft, Kathryn began her passion for changing mobility when she spent time in India redesigning the local Rickshaw and service model with the Varanasi startup SMV Wheels.
See our first series of women in shared mobility interview here.
After speaking to these women in shared mobility, we are very optimistic about the future of carsharing. Want to talk more? Contact us!
